The new president and CEO of Michigan State University's Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies flew in from the University of North Dakota, where she just left her tenured professorship, closed on her new house in Kalamazoo and prepared to take part in graduation the next day.

Elizabeth Burns gives the impression of always being able to handle any challenge that comes her way, perhaps because she's been part of so many already.

"We refer to ourselves as the bleeding edge -- I was in the Class of 1972," she said.
"Everybody talks about Title IX in terms of women's athletics, but basically it said there couldn't be any discrimination in any institution of higher education. That was 1972. My class at U-M, they doubled the number of women matriculating in 1972."

Her family pushed education. Her paternal grandparents had moved to Ann Arbor so they could send all eight children to college -- they could handle the cost if the children lived at home.

Two generations later, girls who were good in sciences and liked helping people were tracked into nursing. As a high school freshman, Burns didn't question that until a family friend asked her why she shouldn't be a doctor instead of a nurse. Burns told her high school English teacher she wanted to go to medical school, and the teacher responded, "OK, here's what classes you have to take."

Following a one-year internship at Henry Ford Hospital, she completed a two-year residency in family practice at Harrisburg, Pa. While in Harrisburg, nearby Three Mile Island nuclear reactor suffered its infamous core meltdown. People were evacuated from a five-mile radius, and hospitals in the vicinity -- including the one where Burns was a resident -- dealt with the threat of nuclear contamination.

"The joke is, when I started residency I was 4-foot-8-inches, now I'm almost 6 feet tall because of Three Mile Island," she said.

During her residency, Burns was sent to a conference on faculty education for family physicians and became interested in new ways of teaching doctors. She won a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Development Fellowship at the University of Iowa.
She earned a master's degree in instructional design and technology from the University of Iowa -- one of only three schools in the country at that time with programs in medical education.

"Beyond you have to know the medical stuff, the skills, but it's also the attitudes. You have to look at your students in these three areas of competence.

"The bottom line -- it's not just knowledge. It's the work environment, the patient care environment, how you interact with your patient.

"The only thing I knew about Iowa was they had fired my uncle, Jerry Burns, as football coach," Burns said. "Then he went on to become coach of the Minnesota Vikings.

"I met people in Iowa City -- I said 'I'm interested in education.' They didn't think I was crazy to want to do education and apply the principles to medical education."

One of her classmates in Iowa was Roger Zinser, a botanist who became her husband.
She joined the faculty of the University of Iowa and later headed the Department of Famly Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She maintained a medical practice part time at each.

"One of the babies I delivered 26 years ago invited me to her wedding a few weeks ago," Burns said. "When you're a family doc, you don't have the volume of OB-Gyn .... I've stayed in touch with patients -- I do get cards, high school graduations, e-mails. The practice part has been very satisfying."

What approach will she take at MSU/KCMS?

"I think what I've learned: It's very important to have dialogue, to partner, to create a situation where people know what's expected.

"My most recent job was directing the Center of Excellence for Women's Health -- we referred to ourselves as the catalyst. They have a great vision statement here and a great vision. I see myself as bringing people together to achieve that."

This interview was conducted by Lynn Stevens, lynns@mbusinessreview.com.